B7 - Course Reflection - Egla Qori

Reflection

Intelligent Buildings was an overall interesting and beneficial course offered at Drexel University and I am glad I chose this topic as an elective, in hope that it would expand my horizons and allow me to see beyond only the very technical structural engineering courses I am taking this term.
One of the main aspects I appreciated about this course was the wide variety of topics covered. I always strive to be a well-rounded engineer so I can be able to handle most tasks assigned to me when exposed to the real working world. This class definitely tried to do that with its students, one of the few classes at Drexel where topics go above and beyond just the basic knowledge needed to graduate and be an engineer. Another thing I really liked, (although that's every Professor Mitchell's class) is how we were always pushed to keep up to date with the industry and current changes. I think that's extremely important if you're trying to be top notch in your industry.
Another thing that I learned, although it's not directly related to the topics covered in class, was creating a mini-database of my own with articles on topics that interest me, pretty much just like the link to Evernote that was available to all students. That's an amazing resource of specific topics, although it will take time to build up.
Having had a decent amount of full-time job interviews has helped me understand a little better what future employers are looking for in a candidate, and in almost every interview (at least for structural engineering positions) the interviewer has expressed an interest in my Revit abilities and really stressed the importance of proficiency with Revit in today's industry. This class and a sophomore-level class are the only exposure to Revit I've gotten and I'm very glad I have some basics down, for me to be later able to expand on that knowledge. I also chose to develop my final project in Revit, hoping that the extra practice would get me more comfortable with the software, and after the completion of a successful project, I can gladly state it did.
I'm grateful to everything I've learned from the instructor and my peers in this class.

Comments

Paulina: I like how you mention the construction industry's lack of flexibility and quick adaptation. This class does give us a very hopeful view on the future, but we have ranged our estimation on different technologies being implemented from 10-50 years and I really hope we get to observe these major changes in our professional lives.
(https://ae-410-510-ay16-17.blogspot.com/2017/03/paulina-gawor-b7-course-reflection.html)

Chris: I agree with pretty much everything you said. My favorite assignment was the one in Revit too. It was mostly focused on families, but I liked how we were pushed to explore it a little further and practice other basic concepts in Revit too, like generating schedules, implementing our families inside a building, etc.
(https://ae-410-510-ay16-17.blogspot.com/2017/03/course-reflection-chris-sager.html)

Maissoun: I'm so glad to hear that your passion for engineering is real, and still there, and this class only helped to boost it more.  I like how you point out the mixure between "creative energy and technical mindset" that this class facilitated, as those skills are crucial in our future as engineers.
(https://ae-410-510-ay16-17.blogspot.com/2017/03/maissoun-ksara-b7-course-reflection.html)